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Averts 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

§§ajt... A inpgrig^l fa 

Shelf 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



INSTRUCTIONS 

TO 

CHRISTIAN CONVERTS. 



DOUGAN CLARK, M. D., 



Professor of Biblical Instruction in Earlham College s 
Author of " Offices of the Holy Spirit," 
c< Christ our Sanctification," etc., etc. 




CHICAGO : 

PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS, 
I 889. 



. C55 



Vv^aiiiGTON 



Copyright, 1889, 

BY 

PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION OF FRIENDS, 
Chicago. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Be Definite. i 

II. Be Diligent 17 

III. Be Faithful 39 

IV. Be Patient 54 

V. Be Holy . 75 

VI. Be Filled ■ 105 

VII. Be Established. .... 120 



CHAPTER 1. 



BE DEFINITE. 

i . Be definite in your experience. Settle 
the point once for all that you are converted 
— or that you are not. I do not forget that 
my book is addressed to those who are con- 
verted. But allow me, I beg, to anticipate a 
little. There are thousands of church mem- 
bers to-day in all Christian lands, who have 
no clear sense of justification and acceptance 
with God. They only hope that they are 
Christians now, or perhaps only hope that 
they shall be saved at death. This is not as 
it should be. The Lord most certainly does 



2 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

not desire His children to be in doubt about 
their sonship. He does not desire His ser- 
vants to be in doubt as to who their master is 
— whether Christ or Satan. He does not de- 
sire His soldiers to be in doubt as to whose 
side they are on — whether for Him or for 
His adversary. 

I do not by any means affirm that every 
conversion must be definite in order to be 
genuine. I do not affirm that every one 
must know the exact moment when he 
passes from death unto life — or otherwise he 
has no life. I do not affirm that every Chris- 
tian must know to a certainty when his spirit- 
ual birthday occurred — or otherwise he has 
no spiritual life — any more than a man 
must know to a certainty when his natural 
birthday occurred — or otherwise he has no 
natural life. I do not affirm that men may 
not know the fact of their conversion with- 
out knowing the time\ but I do affirm that 



BE DEFINITE. 



3 



where proper instructions are given to those 
under conviction and seeking salvation, a de- 
finite conversion will be the rule, and any 
other kind will be the rare exception. 

What then are the instructions which are 
suitable to the convicted sinner? I answer 
that he should be taught to seek and pray for 
definite and pungent conviction. The Holy 
Spirit has awakened him either directly or 
by the " foolishness of preaching," or by 
reading or hearing the word, or by some 
other instrumentality, and now let him ask 
that the same blessed Holy Spirit may give 
him clear and distinct views of his lost and 
undone condition as a sinner before God — let 
him pray that he may see the worst of him- 
self and realize the hopelessness of his state, 
until from the very depths of his agonized 
soul he may cry out, " A Savior or I die; a 
Redeemer or I perish forever." Let him be 
definite in his conviction. 



4 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



And then let him be definite in his repent- 
ance. Let him thoroughly and completely 
change his mind. Let him renounce defin- 
itely and intelligently all sin in general and 
his own sin in particular. Let him seek and 
ask for the " godly sorrow which worketh 
repentance unto salvation not to be repented 
of." 

And let him be definite in his confession of 
sin. " Let him acknowledge his transgres- 
sions." Let him make no apologies to God. 
Let him not plead circumstances nor exten- 
uations, nor talk about the peculiarity of his 
temperament, or the unexampled force of his 
temptations. Let him make a clean breast of 
it. Let him have it out with God. Let him 
confess his own sins and not other people's. 
Let him make full restitution to all men 
whom he has wronged in any way, and let 
him take the place of the sinner before 'God, 



BE DEFINITE. 



5 



making no excuses nor palliations, but simply 
acknowledging " I have sinned and am guilty 
before Thee." 

And let him be definite in his fraying. 
Let him ask for what he needs. Let his 
prayers be short and to the point. Let him 
pray at a mark. % The prayers of sinners in 
the New Testament are models in this re- 
spect: "Lord if Thou wilt Thou canst 
make me clean;" " God be merciful to me 
a sinner;" " Remember me when Thou com- 
est into Thy Kingdom." 

And then let him be definite in his faith. 
Let him believe for the thing he has asked 
for. Let him not imagine that God will give 
him something more than he has asked for, 
though doubtless He does often give exceed- 
ing abundantly above all we ask or think, a 
promise which is addressed to Christians; 
nor something less than he has asked for; 
nor something else than he has asked for, but 



6 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



just what he has asked for — namely, pardon, 
and regeneration, and adoption into His own 
divine family. God's conditions for the be- 
stowment of blessings, whatsoever the char- 
acter of those blessings may be, are exceed- 
ingly simple. 

Ask, Believe, Receive. 
By the course here prescribed, in most cases 
all doubt may soon be made to vanish. Surely 
it is not necessary to remain for years or a 
lifetime in a state of suspense and uncertainty 
as to our real standing with God. The Bible 
clearly points out the proper procedure for 
the sinner to act upon in order to find favor 
with his Heavenly Father; and He does not 
wish us to be in doubt as to a present salva- 
tion. Did Paul ever doubt as to his conver- 
sion? Did Peter or John or Aquila or Pris- 
cilla doubt whether or not they were Chris- 
tians? Did Luther ever doubt whether he 
was justified by faith? Did George Fox 



BE DEFINITE. 



7 



ever doubt that he was converted and bap- 
tized with the Holy Ghost? Did John Wes- 
ley ever doubt his sonship after that exper- 
ience in which his heart was " strangely 
warmed ?" 

Now, it must not be forgotten that just in 
proportion as there is a lack of definiteness in 
our experience, in that proportion also is 
there a lack of power. Uncertainty is al- 
ways weakness; and not only weakness, but 
perplexity and unhappiness. It is not the 
man who hesitates and vacillates that most 
enjoys his religion and is most active and suc- 
cessful in the service of the Lord and in 
winning souls; but the man who is firmly 
persuaded of his own acceptance, and whose 
soul is filled with the "joy of the Lord " 
which is indeed " strength." 

Now, beloved reader, if you are unsettled 
and wavering and do not know just where 
you stand in reference to divine things, and 



8 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

as regards your present salvation, I beseech 
you to settle the matter at once. He that is 
not for us is against us. There is no neutral 
territory in this matter; you are saved or not 
saved; converted or not converted; on the 
Lord's side or on the side of his enemy — the 
devil. 

If you are in the fog and distressed with 
doubt, stop and take an observation. Deter- 
mine your spiritual latitude and longitude. 
Take your bearings and distances in refer- 
ence to the heavenly goal. Give the Lord 
the benefit of every doubt, and go to Him in 
earnest prayer, asking to be enlightened, 
asking, if need be, to be converted ; asking 
to have all darkness and all doubt dispelled ; 
asking for the witness of the Spirit, that 
shall assure you that your name is written in 
heaven; asking for the peace which is given to 
those who are justified by faith; asking for 
that Christian love to be shed abroad in your 



BE DEFINITE. 



9 



heart by the Holy Spirit, which love is the 
unmistakable sign that you have passed from 
death unto life. 

2. Having settled the matter distinctly and 
irreversibly, and for all time, that you are a 
child of God, then, in the next place, be defin- 
ite in your testimony \ Tell it out plainly 
and clearly. Do not speak of simply cherish- 
ing a hope, Hope is a glorious thing in its 
place. It is one of the blessed Christian 
graces, for "patience worketh experience, 
and experience, hope;" and then " hope mak- 
eth not ashamed." There is a " full assur- 
ance of hope;" which reaches forward to 
eternity and assures its possessor that what 
he grasps now by the assurance of faith shall 
be his forever, not because he cannot fall, 
but because he shall not, because God is 
able to keep that which he hath committed 
unto Him against that day. 



lO INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

But as regards a present salvation, the use 
of the word hope often involves a grave 
delusion and a dangerous snare. It seems as 
an opiate to the anxious soul. If it is not at 
once decided that its sins are forgiven and 
that it has been adopted into God's family, 
it soothes itself by the reflection, " Well, I at 
least have a hope; yes, I hope I shall be 
saved at last," and that very hope is put in 
the place of a distinct and definite decision, 
which God calls for to-day. Because he or 
she has a hope, the man or woman will turn 
aside from the convictions of the Holy 
Spirit, which are urging a present repentance, 
a present faith and a present submission. 

" My son, my daughter, give me thine 
heart." 

Hope has reference to that which is in the 
mind of the individual more or less uncertain. 
It involves both a desire and an expectation, 
but the expectation does not amount to cer- 



BE DEFINITE. 



tainty, but only to a greater or less degree of 
probability. It is in the Holy Scriptures dis- 
tinguished from sight — " What a man seeth, 
why doth he yet hope for?" Another re- 
mark which we make about hope is that it 
has reference to what is future in contrast 
with what is present. If I have in my hand 
a present possession, I do not say that I hope 
for it. I have it and enjoy it. Hope then, 
we should bear in mind, has to do with what 
is uncertain, and what is future. Faith, on 
the other hand, whilst it grasps both the 
present and the future, has a special refer- 
ence to the present. It takes hold of Christ 
now, and claims a salvation that is enjoyed to- 
day. And faith is the substance of things 
hoped for. It is the substance of things de- 
sired and expected and makes them real 
possessions at this very hour. If, then, we 
have a hope which is founded upon faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and accompanied by 



12 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



penitence and surrender to Him, it shall not 
make us ashamed — and it is far better, and 
more definite — better I might rather say, 
because more definite — to speak of & present 
faith than a future hope. If we are not 
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as a present 
Savior, we have no ground to hope, we have 
no reason to speak of our hope, indeed we 
are without hope until we believe in Him. 
And if we are believing in Him as a present 
Savior, let us to-day and definitely say so to 
His glory. 

3. Be Definite in your intercourse with 
the world. 

Take your stand at once as a Christian. 

Let your employers, your fellow-workers, 
your companions, your friends, know that 
you are a new man. Do not hide your light 
under a bushel. Do not keep all your religion 
carefully in the back-ground on week days, and 
endeavor to compensate for this cowardice 



BE DEFINITE. 13 

by making a display of it on the Sabbath. 
Be an O and O, as D. L. Moody expresses it, 
- an out and out Christian. 

I do not of course urge you to be a boast- 
ful or a loud professor. I do not advise you 
to be offensive or repulsive in your manner of 
pressing the claims of Christ upon your asso- 
ciates or explaining your position. Do not 
repel those with whom you come in contact, 
but attract them, win them, persuade them. 
Exhibit to all, not self-importance or pride, 
but the meekness and gentleness of Christ. 
Be clothed with humility, but at the same 
time exercise a holy firmness of purpose. 
Gently but positively refuse to join with 
your unsaved companions in any pursuits or 
any amusements which are demoralizing in 
their tendency or which are even doubtful in 
their character. 

Whatever is not of faith is sin; which 
means that whatsoever you cannot engage in 



14 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

with a full belief of its Tightness; whatsoever, 
in other words, you are doubtful about 
should be refrained from and given up. If 
you have a doubt whether you can dance to 
the glory of God, give up the ball-room. If 
you are not clear that you can rightly and 
properly as a Christian, attend the theatre or 
the opera, give them up. If you are not 
sure that card-playing is an innocent and pro- 
per Christian game, give up the card- table. 
Take a positive and definite stand for Christ. 

4. Be definite in your acceptance of the 
-promises of God. All that the sole of your 
foot shall tread upon shall be yours. All 
things are yours; but it depends upon your 
own aggressiveness whether you shall get 
them into actual and bona-fide possession or 
not. 

When you come to a promise, however 
rich and glorious, addressed to believers, 
stop and put your own name into the prom- 



BE DEFINITE. 



'5 



ise. Say to yourself and God, That means 
me now, and so appropriate the untold 
wealth left you in your Father's legacy by 
faith. The promises of God include all pos- 
sible good, for it is written: "No good 
thing will He withhold from them that walk 
uprightly." 

The promises of God exclude all possible 
evil, for He says, " There shall no evil befall 
thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy 
dwelling." The promises of God include all 
possible circumstances, for Paul tells us that 
" All things work together for good to them 
that love God." The promises of God in- 
clude the whole of our needs, both temporal 
and spiritual, for " My God shall supply all 
your need according to His riches in glory 
by Christ Jesus." The promises of God are 
really all-sufficient for ail time, for it is de- 
clared, " God is able to make all grace 



l6 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

abound toward you that ye always having 
alU sufficiency in all things may abound unto 
every good work." 

To sum up, let your conversion be defin- 
itely and distinctly accepted as a fact, when 
you fulfil the conditions. Let your walk be 
definitely and distinctly a Christian walk. 
Let your life be distinctly and definitely a 
Christian life; and you shall have every 
reason to believe that your death will be 
definitely and distinctly a Christian death and 
your heaven definitely and distinctly a Chris- 
tian heaven — and what that means you may 
not know now, but you shall know hereafter. 
Praise the Lord. 



CHAPTER II. 



BE DILIGENT. 

i. Be diligent in the discharge of all 
necessary religious duties. " The hand of 
the diligent maketh rich," says Solomon, and 
this is just as true of spiritual as of secular 
matters. 

The expression, a lazy Christian, involves 

an absurdity on the face of it. The sluggard 

in religion, like the sluggard in outward life, 

will surely come to poverty. The wicked 

and slothful servant will be held to a fearful 

account for the neglect of his Lord's money. 

No idlers in the vineyard of the Lord. No 

drones in the spiritual hive. God has His 

plan for everyone, and a special work for 
(*7) 



iS INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

everyone. Be up and doing. Work while 
it is day. The night cometh, or to reverse 
the figure as Paul does, " The night is far 
spent and the day is at hand." " What thy 
hand findeth to do, do with thy might." 
Do not be uneasy at this stage of your exper- 
ience about your future mission. Even if 
God calls you to the ministry or to go to 
foreign lands, or some part of your own land 
more or less remote, at home or abroad as a 
missionary of the gospel, even then gird up 
the loins of your mind and be always ready 
but do not be in a hurry. There may be 
years of preparation necessary before you 
are fitted to enter upon your real life work. 
And that preparation is to be brought about 
by doing diligently the work of each partic- 
ular day, and leaving the future in God's 
hands. An old proverb says 5 "Do ye next 
thing ;" and an old maxim says : " Do the 
duty that lies next door to you;" and these 



BE DILIGENT. 



l 9 



are good for spiritual as well as temporal 
things. Therefore, keep close to your 
Guide. Do not rush recklessly ahead, nor 
loiter slothfully behind. Keep abreast of 
your present privileges, your present respon- 
sibilities, and your present duties. The work 
of to-day done diligently to the glory of 
God will be the very best possible prepara- 
tion for the work of to-morrow. Therefore, 
while not regardless of the future, see to it 
that you are diligent in the present. All 
your capacities and powers should be given 
to the present moment. The present mo- 
ment should be given to God. 

One of the most remarkable men that has 
ever appeared on our planet was Moses. 
For forty years he lived in Egypt and in a 
very high position in that country. Egypt 
in the time of Moses was the most civilized 
and enlightened nation on the face of the 
earth. Moses was taught all the sciences 



20 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



and all the learning and all the wisdom of 
that remarkable people. Afterwards God 
took him to Arabia and had him in His 
school and at the farther side of the desert 
for another forty years, while he kept the 
sheep of Jethro. Moses was being taught of 
the Lord, and then, when eighty years of age, 
he was just ready to begin the real work of 
his life — the deliverance of his people. 

Look at David. He also went to school to 
God. He was also trained as a shepherd, 
that he might become the shepherd and king 
of God's chosen people. If he had not 
learned to rule and protect the sheep, he 
would never have known how to govern 
and defend the people. If he had not slain 
the lion and the bear when they attacked his 
flock, he would never have slain the giant of 
the Philistines in the valley of Elah. If he 
had not learned how to obey, by submitting 
himself in all things to Saul, even when he 



BE DILIGENT. 



21 



was hunted as a partridge on the mountain 
and there was but a step betwixt him and 
death, he would not have known how to 
rule when the kingdom was established in his 
hands. If he had not spared his enemy again 
and again when he was in his power — because 
that enemy was the Lord's anointed — he 
would never have triumphed over that enemy 
as he did, and would never have become the 
Lord's anointed himself. Yes, beloved, there 
is a time for preparation and a time for work. 
Leave the time and manner of preparation 
as you leave the time and character of the 
work in the Lord's hands and all shall be 
well. Jesus abode thirty years at Nazareth 
subject to his parents, and working at the 
humble trade of a carpenter, in order that he 
as the Son of Man might be ready for his 
public ministry of three and a half years; but 
God was with him all the way from Bethle- 
hem to Calvary. 



22 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

Paul was converted at Damascus and 
straightway preached Christ in the syna- 
gogues that He is the Son of God. There 
he gave his testimony at the beginning of 
his Christian life, which is always right and 
proper. But immediately God turned him 
away into Arabia, and kept him for three 
years in that same school of His where 
Moses had been trained, in order that Paul 
might be qualified for the Apostleship of 
the Gentiles. 

2. Be diligent in attending to all the 
means of grace. The greatest and most im- 
portant of these is the reading and study of 
the Holy Bible. You can no more afford to 
do without your daily reading than you can 
afford to do without you daily meals. The 
Bible is God's book. It is your Heavenly 
Father's will. There is in it the revelation 
and attestation of a rich legacy for you. 
Do not fail to learn all about it by a diligent 



BE DILIGENT. 



2 3 



perusal of its rich bequests, and a diligent 
study of the terms and conditions on which 
they are to be yours. Read your Bible reg- 
ularly when you feel like it. Read your 
Bible conscientiously when you do not feel 
like it. In this manner you will cultivate a 
spiritual appetite; you will learn to love the 
Bible. You will rejoice in searching its 
pages as one who has found great spoil. 
Your prayer will be from day to day: 
"Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold 
wondrous things out of Thy law." How- 
ever busy your life may be, always take time 
to get a little Bible — if you cannot get a 
great deal — every day. Memorize at least 
one verse and ruminate upon it as you are 
about your work. 

The Holy Bible is the record of God's Son. 
It tells you about Jesus your Savior. Ask 
that the illuminating influence of the blessed 
Holy Spirit may rest upon its pages as you 



2 4 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



prayerfully peruse them. He is the Divine 
Author of the Book. He will always oper- 
ate with peculiar effectiveness in connection 
with His own Book. He will honor it. 
Never admit for a moment the thought that 
because you have the Holy Ghost, you can 
afford to neglect the Bible. He that turns 
his back upon the Holy Bible and forsakes 
it, may himself expect to be forsaken by the 
Holy Ghost. 

Besides the daily privilege of reading at 
least a small portion of the Holy Scriptures, 
if you are the head of a family you should at 
once begin from the very day of your con- 
version to read it daily in your family. The 
family altar was enjoined upon God's people 
even under the old dispensation, as a positive 
command. Your children must learn from 
you how unspeakably precious in your eyes 
is this supernatural Book. They must listen 
to a portion of it from your lips every day 



BE DILIGENT 



2 5 



either morning or evening or both. Honor 
the Bible in your heart. Honor it in your 
family. Honor it before the church and the 
world. 

I am not inculcating any idolatry of the 
Bible itself. I am not asking you to worship 
the Book, I do not favor Bibliolatry. 
The Bible is not Christ. The Bible will not 
save you. The Bible is not the way, but only 
the guide-board pointing the way. A rail- 
way guide w r ill not take you to San Francisco. 
If you would go you must follow the direc- 
tions of the guide, and take the train. But 
there is little danger of your loving this 
blessed book too much, or studying it too 
much, or honoring it too much. It contains 
the word of God — His revelation to man, 
— whatsoever He has uttered or done by 
w T ay of communication to our race. It is 
your rule of faith and practice. No doctrine 
is binding upon you as an article of Christian 



26 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



faith; no precept is binding upon you as a 
duty of Christian morality, which is not 
either contained in the Holy Scriptures or 
" clearly inferrible therefrom." 

There are various methods of reading and 
studying the Sacred Scriptures, each of 
which has its advantages, and may be used 
in its turn in accordance with the object you 
have in view. Sometimes you will want to 
study the Bible topically. For this purpose 
a reference Bible and a concordance are es- 
pecially required. Take the subject of faiths 
or grace^or salvation, or whatever you may 
wish to investigate, and with the aid of your 
concordance refer to every text on that par- 
ticular topic. It will not be long before you 
will begin to see which are the important 
themes in the great plan of salvation which 
is revealed in Jesus Christ. 

Then again you will desire to take a whole 
passage or a whole chapter and study it in 



BE DILIGENT. 



2 7 



detail as it is done in the International Sab- 
bath School Lessons. Use helps and com- 
mentaries here if you like, but do not depend 
upon them too exclusively. Do not make 
them crutches to walk with and which may 
finally take the place of your own strong 
limbs. Use them as not abusing them; use 
them for the purpose of adding to your 
information and stimulating your own 
thought; use them for increasing your 
breadth of thought and your knowledge of 
the subject, but not to supersede either your 
own thinking powers, or your industry in 
searching the Scriptures, for these, after all, 
are their own best interpreters. 

Again, it is an excellent plan when you 
have an hour or two to spare, to read contin- 
uously a great part of one of the books of 
the Bible, or even a whole book at a single 
sitting. This will give you the connection 



28 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



and the line of thought of the author better 
than any other plan. This is especially true 
of the Epistles of the New Testament and 
the minor prophets of the Old ; but it is ap- 
plicable also to all the writings of the Holy 
Bible. Read them consecutively and in 
their relation one part to another and to the 
whole 3 and to the other books that precede 
and follow them. 

Be diligent then, beloved, in your study of 
the Divine Book, and always seek the indis- 
pensable aid of the Holy Spirit^ that you 
may understand it. 

Another means of grace which is essential 
to your religious progress, and even to the 
maintenance of your religious life, is the 
habit of frayer. Be diligent in this. Have 
a season of private prayer when you read your 
Bible alone, but not then only, and pray vocally 
on suitable occasions in the presence of your 
family, and in the prayer meeting, or what- 



BE DILIGENT, 



2 9 



ever name the meeting may be called by in 
your particular church. An old Dutch pro- 
verb says, "Nothing is ever gained by thiev- 
ing nor lost by praying." 

And this is the one duty which is enjoined 
upon us as an unceasing duty, "Pray without 
ceasingP " Continue instant In prayer." 
" Men ought always to pray and not to faint." 
These and similar passages teach that we are 
to dwell in an atmosphere of prayer, that we 
are to cultivate and possess a prayerful spirit 
even when engaged in our lawful vocations. 
We must keep the channels always open be- 
tween our souls and God. We must go to 
him with our little burdens and our great 
ones. Nothing is too little, nothing too large, 
to take to our loving Heavenly Father. Are 
we afflicted ? He is afflicted also. Are we 
happy ? He is a sympathizing Friend in all 
our joy. Are we perplexed ? He can solve all 
our problems, and remove all our difficulties. 



30 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



Are we tempted? Jesus has suffered being 
tempted and is able to succor them that are 
tempted. Are we weak? He is touched 
with the feeling of our infirmities. Are we 
needy? In Him there is an all bountiful and 
never-failing supply. Every day has some 
new subject of prayer to lay before Him, 
whose ears are open to our every cry. 

Oh, praise the Lord we are not orphans. 
Hear His gracious words, " I will not leave 
you comfortless," " I will come to you," " Lo, 
I am with you always even to to the end of 
the world;" and the simple conditions upon 
which we are to obtain every gospel blessing 
is, " ask and ye shall receive." 

But do not be induced by the beautiful 
words of the poet Montgomery 5 — 

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, 
Uttered or unexpressed,'' 

to leave your desires unexpressed. It is one 
thing to desire and another thing to pray. 



BE DILIGENT. 



3 1 



Turn your good desires into prayers, and send 
them back to the throne of God, whence the 
good desires came. What you desire under the 
influence of the Holy Spirit, pray for; 
" Whatsover things you desire when you 
fray believe that ye receive them and ye 
shall have them" And thus we see that the 
good desire is begotten by the Holy Spirit, 
the desire must be expressed in a prayer, not 
necessarily in vocal words to be sure, but the 
desire must be addressed to God; and it is 
vastly better that the words be uttered, and 
even uttered loudly enough for you to hear 
your own voice, and this even in private 
prayer; and then the prayer must be in faith, 
and in the name of Jesus, whom God hears 
and answers always. 

But you may pray also to Jesus Himself. 
He is one with the Father, He also has 
power on earth to forgive sins. He is our 
Advocate. He is our Mediator. It is His 



32 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

merits that render our prayers effectual. Pray 
to Him directly, and pray also to the Holy 
Ghost. We are in His blessed and glorious 
dispensation. It will aid you much in form- 
ing a distinct idea of the personality and 
Deity of the Holy Spirit to address Him as 
God, to talk to Him, to commune with Him, 
to hearken to His voice in the innermost re- 
cesses of the soul, and to obey it. Do not 
regard the Holy Spirit as an influence or an 
emanation, but as a Holy Divine Person. Do 
not speak of the Holy Spirit as eV, but always 
He, and cultivate His acquaintance in every 
possible way, by prayer, by faith, by obedi- 
ence, by walking in the light. 

Another highly important means of grace, 
which you can never safely neglect is public 
worship. Do not forsake " the assembling 
of yourselves together as the manner of 
some is." Public worship is practiced in dif- 
ferent ways, and under different forms in the 



BE DILIGENT. 



33 



different evangelical churches. It may be 
performed so far as the outward form is con- 
cerned by singing, praying, preaching, testi- 
fying, exhorting, or in solemn silence. But 
all true worship, whether accompanied by 
any of these exercises or not is always in the 
heart — it is in spirit and in truth ; the kind of 
worship, and the only kind, which the Father 
seeks. Such worship can only be rendered 
on the basis of forgiven sin, you must draw 
near by the blood of Jesus, and " at the blood 
sprinkled mercy seat you must pour out the 
love of your reconciled heart and hear the 
oracles of the living God." And while such 
worship no doubt can be performed alone 
and in the privacy of your own home, yet 
the diligent practice of assembling with 
others for social worship is positively enjoined 
and can never be rightly neglected unless 
when God by His providence renders 
such assembling impracticable. 



34 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

The most important of the exercises of 
public worship is the ministry of the Word. 
The call and the qualification of the minister 
are from the Lord alone. Every one so called 
should, without fail, seek and obtain Christ's 
baptism with the Holy Ghost and fire, 
and the consequent " purifying of his heart 
by faith" and the " enduement of power," 
before entering upon this responsible office, 
and it is just as true now as in Paul's days, 
that it pleases " God by the foolishness of 
preaching to save them that believe." And 
so the preached Word is under the ac- 
companying and convicting power of the 
Holy Ghost, the great means of saving souls. 
And then after you are saved the ministry of 
an anointed preacher will be of untold value in 
strengthening, and encouraging, and feeding, 
and instructing, and building you up upon 
the most holy faith. 

Be diligent, I beseech you, in your attend- 



BE DILIGENT. 



35 



ance upon the regular public services of your 
church. Even if everything is not just as you 
wish, even if the minister does not please you in 
all respects, or even if there be objections in 
your mind hard to be overcome, nevertheless 
be diligent in the attendance of all your 
church meetings. The Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself has promised to be present with 
every assembly, large or small, which is 
gathered in His name, and His presence will 
more than compensate for all the imperfec- 
tions you may have to encounter, either in 
the minister or your fellow-worshipers, and 
His presence in His assembled church you 
cannot afford to forego. Let no excuse of 
earthly cares, or of not feeling in the mood 
to go to meeting, or of " the suspicion of a 
headache," or any trivial thing whatever, 
keep you from your place at the house of 
worship. And if you thus diligently attend 
your social worship, and go with a heart 



36 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



prepared to receive good from whatever per- 
son or through whatever instrumentality the 
Lord may direct, there will be one person at 
least who will be blessed every time. Praise 
the Lord for this privilege and this duty of 
meeting with your fellow-Christians for pray- 
ing to and worshiping Him. 

3. Be diligent in your secular business. 
Whatever may be your outward occupation, 
you are to remember that this also is to be 
dedicated to the Lord. Any business which 
you cannot dedicate to the Lord, and humbly 
ask his blessing upon, you are forbidden to 
engage in, or to continue a single day after 
you are a Christian. And if you are engaged 
in the Lord's business you must pursue it 
diligently as unto Him, and for His glory, 
first and foremost before any consideration of 
your own emolument, or even your own sup- 
port. Paul's great business was to preach 
the gospel, but his occupation or craft was 



BE DILIGENT. 



37 



that of a tent-maker. He preached to the 
glory of God on Sabbath and week-day 
evenings and at other times as opportun- 
ity offered, and then made tents to the glory 
of God and to minister to his own nec- 
essities and those who were with him, in the 
intervals of his preaching. If you are lazy, 
or shiftless, or negligent about your outward 
calling you are too apt to become unconcern- 
ed about your highest interest. The gaining 
of one's living, or eating one's bread by the 
sweat of the brow, though a part of the 
original curse for man's sin, is, by God's 
great goodness and mercy, turned into a 
blessing. Work is a positive good independ- 
ently of the pecuniary profit that attends it. 
Elizabeth Barret Browning says, 

" Get work, get work ; 
Be sure 'tis of more worth than what you work to 
get." 

The Apostle enjoins upon one of the churches 



38 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

to which he writes, not to be " slothful in busi- 
ness;" and to another he declares that " if any 
will not work neither shall he eat." And so 
every one in His Church on earth is ex- 
pected to work with hand or brain or both, 
for the support of his own family, and to 
have something to give to a brother who may 
be in want, and that he may contribute to the 
Lord's treasury, and bring not reproach upon 
the cause of Christ. Praise the Lord for 
work, and be diligent. 



CHAPTER III. 



BE FAITHFUL. 

Faithful means full of faith; and because 
there is such an intimate connection between 
faith and obedience, the word has received 
the additional meaning of a zealous obedience 
and discharge of every duty in an outward 
religious and moral life. 

I. Be faithful then to duty. 

Duty has been styled by the poet Words- 
worth, 

" Stern daughter of the voice of God," 
and therefore whoever is faithful to duty is 
faithful to the voice of God. There is some- 
thing sublime in a persistent, conscientious 
fidelity to duty, whether through good re- 
(39) 



40 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



port or evil report. Do right though the 
heavens fall. Do right and leave all 
consequences and results with God. To be 
sure there is a higher motive for doing right 
than even duty, and that motive is love. To 
do God's will and to suffer God's will 
because you love it, and to feel it a privilege, 
is even better than to do it because it is duty. 
To keep God's law with the joyous loving 
freedom of a child because you may, is better 
than to keep it with the constrained obedi- 
ence of a servant because you "must. But if, 
because you have been forgiven and accepted 
and adopted into God's family, you go for- 
ward day by day in a faithful discharge of 
every known duty, you will soon love that 
which at first may be hard. Duty will give 
place to love. But this remark must not be 
misunderstood or misapplied. It is only 
Jesus who by His Holy Spirit can work such 
transformation in your heart, that hard 



BE FAITHFUL. 



41 



things will be made easy and bitter things 
sweet, and that what you do as a duty shall 
ultimately become a delight. Work alone 
will not accomplish this desirable result. 
Many Christians, it is to be feared, are trying 
to work out their salvation in a sense that 
neither the Apostle nor the Holy Spirit ever 
intended. You must remember the latter 
part of the text as well as the first part. " It 
is God that worketh in you both to will and 
to do of His good pleasure." Therefore 
you can only work out your salvation as He 
works it in. Keep asking Him and trusting 
Him to make you willing and keep you will- 
ing to do His will under all circumstances 
and at all times. But in the meantime, go 
resolutely forward doing your duty as you 
understand it, whether the doing is agreeable 
to your natural feelings or not. Every de- 
reliction of duty is a sin, a sin of commission 
if you do what you ought not, and a sin of 



42 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

omission if you fail to do what you ought. 
And sin inevitably leads to condemnation 
and a loss of your communion with God, and 
unless repented of and forgiven, will quickly 
bring you into the position of a backslider; 
and then Satan will persuade you to forget 
that you were purged from your old sins. 
As fidelity to duty makes the strongest and 
the bravest and the most useful character, so 
neglect of duty tends surely to weakness and 
vacillation and drying up of joy, and the loss 
of communion, and finally returning to one's 
sins, as " the sow that was washed, to her wal- 
lowing in the mire." You will find religious 
duties, moral duties, and secular duties to be 
discharged every day of your life. Be faith- 
ful in all, and the Lord will bless you, and 
you shall receive the glorious reward of 
" Well done," at the end of your probation. 
Praise the Lord. 

2. Be faithful to Christ. Be loyal to 



BE FAITHFUL. 



43 



Him. Uphold everywhere the standard of 
the Cross. Leave no doubt in the minds of 
those about you as to whose side you are on. 
Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. Be 
faithful in His work. Be a winner of souls. 
Try to secure the salvation of your own fam- 
ily and of all those with whom you are 
brought in contact. Confess that you are a 
stranger, and a pilgrim on earth, and that 
you seek a better country, that is an heavenly. 
Let your citizenship be in heaven, while at 
the same time you are faithful as a citizen of 
this world also. Be faithful in upholding 
the right. Be faithful in opposing the 
wrong. And all for Jesus Christ's sake. 
" Fight the good fight of faith," but not with 
carnal weapons, nor in the spirit of earthly 
warfare, but with meekness, with gentleness, 
with love, and yet with a holy firmness and 
zeal. Give no occasion to them that desire 
occasion against the gospel. Let love and 



44 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

patience and wisdom and prudence be so in- 
fused into your character that the name of 
Christ may never through you be evil spoken 
of. Be faithful^ beloved. 

3. Be faithful to your home. Be loyal to 
the household of which you are a member. 
" Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter 
against them." " Wives, submit yourselves 
to your own husbands," but let it be with the 
joyous submission of love which always has 
its way. " Children, obey your parents." 
" Fathers, provoke not your' children," nor 
in any way discourage them. Let there be 
no petty jealousies nor rivalries between the 
heads of the family. Let there be no tyranny 
nor self-will on the part of the husband. 
Let there be no sullenness nor peevishness 
nor whining complaint, nor failure of wifely 
regard and duty on the part of the wife. 
Do you not read that the husband and wife 
shall no more be twain but one flesh? Oh, 



BE FAITHFUL. 



45 



be kindly affectioned one to another, and es- 
pecially to your own families. 

I quote the following remarks taken from 
the Pittsburg Advocate, on the " Influence of 
Home": 

"The New York Herald says that an em- 
inent financial authority in that city, in speak- 
ing of the defalcation of one of his clerks, 
made this suggestive remark: 4 This clerk 
was always most exemplary and competent, 
an excellent paying teller, cool, methodical 
and imperturbable. Had I known he had 
not a happy home, I would not have kept 
him as paying teller. I would not have any 
man in such a capacity who did not live 
happily at his home.' Here is food for re- 
flection. There is a truth involved which is 
of the greatest importance and widest appli- 
cation. The home life is the basis of all life, 
and a happy home is essential to safety and 
success in any department of life. Occasion- 



46 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

ally a man or woman is strong enough and 
sufficiently self-contained to endure disquiet 
and unhappiness at home without flinching 
at any point of duty." \All may be so, but 
only by the grace of God.] " But the major- 
ity are not so. They become discouraged, 
lose heart and at last break down. Many of 
the sudden and surprising lapses are to be 
traced to this cause. Indeed, when one finds 
himself tied for life to a home, and has be- 
come convinced that there is no rest nor hap- 
piness for him in it, it is not surprising that 
he becomes discouraged and breaks down. 
That is the natural result, however much we 
may deplore it. And it is no more true of 
man than it is of woman. On the other hand 
a man is prepared to stand almost any storm, 
meet any foe, endure any hardship or suffer- 
ing, which may fall to his lot in this world, 
if he only has a good home, full of sympathy 
and love, into which he may retreat. There- 



BE FAITHFUL. 



47 



in he grows strong. In it he has something 
for which to endure and fight. Many a 
man's success, many a woman's triumph are 
to be attributed to the happy home in which 
they live. There is no other place so much 
like heaven, this side of heaven, as a happy 
home." 

Beloved, be faithful and loyal to your 
home. 

4. Be faithful to your church, and at the 
same time be faithful to your own convic- 
tions, 

I take it for granted that every Christian 
convert, and hence every one of those who 
is likely to read this work, has become or 
will quickly become a member of some 
Christian Church. As much as any man or 
woman or child needs a home in this world, 
so much every Christian needs a church 
home. The church is God's house, the pillar 
and ground of the truth, and the light of the 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



world. Not in itself, but as reflecting the 
light of the Sun of righteousness, as the moon 
reflects the light of the outward sun. You 
will no doubt find imperfection in all the 
churches, just as you find imperfection in all 
homes; but as the worst home is better than 
none, so the worst evangelical church is bet- 
ter than no church at all. Attach yourself 
therefore to some denomination of Christians, 
and then be faithful to it. 

Most of the sects of Christians have a pub- 
lished confession of faith, which is only an 
expression of their views of the doctrines of 
salvation as found in the Scriptures. Some 
churches have no confession or creed which 
they regard as binding upon their members 
except the Bible itself. 

Now what is to be done, if, as a member 
of a church, you cannot subscribe to its con- 
fession of faith in all particulars, or are not 
in agreement with its well understood doc- 



BE FAITHFUL. 



49 



trines? I know no better answer to this 
question than the one first propounded by 
Augustine, the Christian Father: "In essen- 
tials, unity y in non-essentials, liberty / in 
all things, charity" 

I am well aware that even this answer has 
its difficulties, because it is not always easy 
to determine what are essentials, and what 
non-essentials. Rut there are certain doc- 
trines which lie at the basis of the Christian 
system and which by common consent are 
regarded as vital. About these there need be 
no doubt. If a man does not believe in the 
fall of man — the Deity and atonement of 
Chris!" — the tri- unity of the Godhead — the 
personality of the Holy Spirit — the necessity 
of conversion — the eternity of future rewards 
and punishments — or the inspiration and Di- 
vine authority of the Holy Scriptures— he 
cannot justly claim a place in any 
Evangelical Christian Church; nor can he 



50 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

complain if he is not regarded as a Christian 
at all. 

As for questions of less moment — and so 
far as the ministry is concerned- — I will quote 
a few sentences from Van Oosterzee, of Hoi- 
land, one of the ablest theologians of the 
present day, and then leave the matter to the 
reader's own judgment and decision : 

u The practical question how far the dog- 
matist in his work as minister of the church 
must consider himself bound by her confes- 
sions can here only be touched upon. Thus 
much however is evident, it is not with any 
dogmatic conviction whatever (much less 
with a complete want thereof), that a man 
has a right to place himself among the teach- 
ers and leaders of a definite church. No 
church summonses ministers to contest her 
belief, and no one can possibly demand of her 
an act of suicide in the name of progress and 
toleration. On the other hand, the church 



BE FAITHFUL. 



5 1 



which wishes to remain Christian and Pro- 
testant cannot desire any other teaching than 
that which bears the stamp of subjective 
truth and thorough sincerity. The con- 
science of the minister, if properly educated, 
must determine whether he can boldly stand 
forth in the face of his church; the conscious- 
ness of the church, if well guided, must de- 
clare whether in its holiest convictions it 
feels itself strengthened or oppressed by him. 
Whenever these be united with a tender 
scrupulosity on both sides, the earnest wish 
to heal all moral and spiritual diseases by the 
power of truth and love, an approach is con- 
ceivable which will lead to real peace." 

Again : " A church which truly holds 
fast to its confession is bound in conformity 
with this last and with the spirit of Protest- 
antism to eliminate from its doctrine every 
element which is in positive contradiction 
with the well-established and well-explained 



5 2 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



utterances of God's word in Holy Scripture. 
vSays the confession of Basle (1534) : 'This our 
confession we subject to the judgment of 
Holy Scripture, with the promise that if we 
are better informed out of the said Scriptures 
we will at all times be obedient to God and 
His word.' It may well be that one feels 
himself on the ground of scripture itself and 
by virtue of the Protestant principle, bound 
in conscience to differ on a certain point from 
the doctrine of the church. 

" Heterodoxy in such a case is not to be re- 
garded at once as heresy. Precisely he truly 
holds to his confession of faith who recog- 
nizes in the confession not the absolutely 
-perfect form of his religious conviction, but 
that which may be constituted an evermore 
perfect forjn of it; and who seeks to attain 
to this higher perfection by an ever closer 
attachment to, and an ever deeper subjection 
of himself to God's Word in Holy Scripture" 

(The Italics are Van Oosterzee's own.) 



BE FAITHFUL. 



53 



I can readily believe and rejoice however, 
that the greater number of my readers will 
not be troubled nor distressed over questions 
of doctrine. Be faithful to your church, be 
loyal to its discipline. Yes, love your church 
as you love your mother and stay right with 
it and in it ; unless or until Providence clearly 
indicates that the time has come for you to 
make a change. But never be a come-outer; 
never turn your back upon all churches, and 
assume an attitude of hostility towards the 
church universal. Remember that the 
church as a whole is composed of all God's 
people. Remember that it is the Bride the 
Lamb's wife. Remember that He loved the 
church and gave Himself for it. Love, then, 
your own particular church, and love the 
church universal. 

Share with her the sufferings of this pres- 
ent time, and expect to share with her the 
glory that shall be revealed in the hereafter. 
Amen. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BE PATIENT. 

Jesus says to his followers in all time, "In 
your patience possess ye your souls." James 
says, " Let patience have her perfect work 
that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting 
nothing." And Peter places patience on top 
of faith, virtue, knowledge, and temperance, 
in his glorious addition table, while the author 
of the Hebrews assures us that it is through 
faith and patience that we are to inherit the 
promises. 

According to Cruden the word patience as 
used in Holy Scripture has four definitions; 
(i) " That grace which enables us to bear 
afflictions and calamities with constancy and 

'(54) 



BE PATIENT. 



55 



calmness of mind, and with a ready submis- 
sion to the will of God, Rom. v. 3; 2 Tim. 
iii. 10. (3) A bearing long with such as 
have greatly transgressed, expecting their re- 
formation, Matt, xviii. 26, 29. (3) An 
humble and submissive waiting for and ex- 
pectation of eternal life, and the accomplish- 
ment of God's promises, Rom. viii. 25; Heb. 
x. 36. (4) Perseverance, James v. 7, 9, 10." 
Our remarks will have reference chiefly to 
the first of these definitions, yet the others 
may perhaps be casually glanced at without 
any special distinction being made. 

(1) Be patient with God. Do you ever 
consider how much patience and how long 
patience He has had with you? How many 
years it may be He waited for you while you 
were all the time turning away from His 
gracious invitations, and slighting the reproofs 
of His instruction ? Nay, do you consider 
that even now, since you have become a 



56 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



Christian, He is obliged to exercise daily and 
infinite patience with you? How faithless 
you have been many and many a time since 
He forgave your sins. How cold! how negli- 
gent! how heartless! how frequent have been 
your lapses and backslidings, and if He has 
such boundless patience with you can you not 
have patience with Him ? Be patient with 
all His providences, as regards yourself and 
your family, your relations to the church and 
your relations to the community. Set 
it down as a fixed fact that the finite 
can never comprehend the Infinite. Do 
not expect to understand all the deal- 
ings of God with you or your friends. 
If you could comprehend God in all respects 
you would cease to worship Him. You will 
not see into all the dispensations of His 
Providence, so long as you see through a 
glass darkly. You should learn like Paul, here 
and now, to " look not at the things which 



BE PATIENT. 



57 



are seen, but at the things which are not seen ; 
for the things which are seen are temporal, 
but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
In other words, you must learn to see God 
and His works and providences not with the 
eye of sense, but with the eye of faith. It 
is faith and faith alone which can keep you 
patient and quiet under all the sorrows and 
afflictions and perplexities of life. Dis- 
appointments you are sure to meet with, 
tribulation is part of your Master's legacy, 
afflictions are appointed unto man. But, oh, 
what an inestimable blessing it is to be 
patient in tribulation, and, notwithstanding 
you may feel many and many a time that a 
heavy hand is laid upon you, yet to believe 
also that it is the hand of a Father. God 
is love." 

Afflictions are of three kinds, (i) those 
that are sent directly from God or permitted 
by Him as a judgment for our sins, or as 



58 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



chastening, the child discipline which He 
assures us is to be the test of legitimate son- 
ship, and is a token also of our Father's love. 
" Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." 
(2) Those that come directly from Satan, or 
from second causes which he sets in opera- 
tion with the same malicious intent which 
actuated his malignant persecution of the 
patriarch Job. (3) Those that arise from our 
fellow men. 

Now the kind of faith which we need, in 
order to endure patiently all afflictions of 
whatever kind or from whatever source, is 
that faith which sees God's hand as present 
either permissively or causatively in every- 
thing which happens to us. Events, my be- 
loved reader, are providences, and we must 
learn to regard them as such. I do not speak 
this in any predestinarian or any fatalistic 
sense. 

God is not the author of sin, but with this 



BE PATIENT. 



59 



exception everything that occurs is either 
directly caused by Him, or at all events 
allowed by Him, and hence it is in some 
sense an expression of His will. Nay, even 
sin itself is permissively providential. God 
for some reason known and understood by 
Himself, has allowed it to break forth in our 
world. He still permits it to go on — still 
permits Satan to rage; but His all-powerful 
hand is still at the helm of affairs, and He 
says to Satan, and to sin as well, " Thus far 
shalt thou come but no further," and in the 
end we have the glorious promise that sin 
and death and all the works of the devil 
shall be destroyed. Glory be to Jesus. 
Amen. 

Now, if these things are so, it follows that 
if we quarrel with the events of our daily 
lives, we are in imminent danger of quarrel- 
ing with God. If we are impatient with 
events we are impatient with God. If we 



60 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

rebel against events we rebel against God, 
and all such rebellion is sin. Let us learn, 
therefore, beloved, to look beyond all second 
causes up to the Great First Cause. He has 
promised never to leave you nor forsake you. 
In all your afflictions He is afflicted, and He 
is the God of all comfort. It is from Him, 
through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit, 
that you are to obtain everlasting consolation 
and good hope through grace. Rejoice, 
therefore, in tribulation, not because of the 
tribulation but because you have such a 
heavenly Divine Comforter. " As one whom 
his mother comf orteth so will I comfort you." 
" I will not leave you comfortless, I will 
come to you." n Lo, I am with you always 
even unto the end of the world." " Fear 
not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called 
thee by thy name, thou art mine; when thou 
passeth through the waters I will be with 
thee, and through the rivers they shall not 



BE PATIENT. 



61 



overflow thee; when thou walkest through 
the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither 
shall the flames kindle upon thee." Praise 
the Lord. 

From the first breath to the last every hu- 
man being is surrounded and hedged in by 
the Providences of God. There is no such 
thing as the accident of birth, any more than 
the accident of anything else. The helpless 
infant is born and reared under the care of 
its parents. The child cannot determine for 
itself whether the parents shall be rich or 
poor, learned or ignorant, virtuous or vicious, 
happy or unhappy; all these things and a 
thousand others are decided by the Omnipo- 
tent Providence that brings him into being. 
The boy or girl, the youth or maiden, is still 
kept and fed and clothed and educated under 
the direction and the limitations of the same 
Providence, and so on through middle life, 
and old age, and down to the dying moment. 



62 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

God keeps his hand upon us, in the unerring 
and unceasing providence of Infinite Love. 

No doubt to our finite minds there often 
seems to be great inequality in the Divine 
providences. One boy or girl, or man or 
woman, seems to be surrounded by every- 
thing which is calculated to promote his or 
her highest happiness, and best development. 
Another of like age and capacity may be living 
next door with all the avenues to happiness, 
and all the facilities for growth in wisdom 
or virtue apparently blocked up and cut off. 
The life of one may seem all brightness and 
sunshine, that of another all darkness and 
despair. To one it seems as if the lines had 
fallen in pleasant places, to another as if his 
house were left unto him desolate. Oh, the 
brightness, and the joy and the gladness that 
are to be found in thousands of happy 
homes. Oh, the misery, the hopelessness and 
the anguish that brood over thousands of 



BE PATIENT. 



6.3 



dwelling places, which are not happy homes. 

The first thought then is that leaving out 
of view sin and man's freedom to commit 
sin, in a very important sense it is true that 
wherever we are placed God places us. 
Even if in our free agency we take ourselves 
out of the position in which He has placed 
us and go where sin places us, still His provi- 
dences are about us, and are of such a 
nature as to persuade our return to the place 
of God's ordering. Witness the prodigal 
son coming back to the father's house, and 
Abraham returning from Egypt to the place 
where he first builded an altar between 
Bethel and Hai. 

Now, as already intimated, it is one of the 
first principles of holiness that every one 
should remain patiently and quietly where 
God has placed him, until Himself shall indi- 
cate that the time has come for a removal or 
a change. But, alas, even good Christians 



64 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



" are often disposed to quarrel with God's 
providential arrangements." " God makes 
the arrangement," says Professor Upham, 
" but the disposition with which we shall re- 
ceive the arrangement He leaves to ourselves. 
In every arrangement which He makes His 
aim is our highest good, but whether it will 
result in our highest good depends upon the 
spirit in which we accept it. If we put our 
thoughts and our feelings in His keeping, 
He will give a heart so correspondent to our 
habitation that our cottage will be as beautiful 
in our sight as a palace, and the darkness of 
the dungeon as bright as the open day." 

Beloved reader, where God has placed thee 
is thy own true home. Do not seek another 
till He gives the word. Right in the present 
time and right where thou art, He has given 
thee an opportunity of glorifying Him, such 
as thou wilt never have again to all eternity, 
and such as no other person can have as thy 



BE PATIENT. 



65 



substitute, if thou art recreant to thy trust; 
the other individual is to glorify God in his 
own allotment, thou in thine. " Hold fast 
that thou hast that no man take thy crown." 
Mount up in one of the twenty thousand 
chariots of God which He brings to-day to 
thy door and ride on to glory. Unite thy 
heart and thy will with all the Providences 
of God concerning thee, being assured that 
His purposes are purposes of love, His plans 
are plans of love, His means are means of 
love, because His nature and His name is 
love. 

It is blessedly true that as a rule God does 
not leave us always in one place, but leads 
us and guides us from position to position, 
from labor to labor, from victory to victory. 
For the first thirty years of his life on earth 
Jesus abode at Nazareth, wrought at the 
humble calling of a carpenter and was sub- 
ject to His parents. And for these thirty 



66 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



years it was in this manner that He glorified 
His Father in heaven. But when the time 
came that God led Him into His public min- 
istry, then He was done with Nazareth. He 
was done with the carpenter shop. He was 
done practically even with earthly rela- 
tionships. He was about His Father's busi- 
ness, and united to His providences in His 
public ministry, His miracles and His death, 
as He had been before in the humble and 
more obscure position of the son of Joseph 
and Mary. 

But the place of God's choosing is also 
the only place of safety for any of us. He 
hedges us about with limitations which oft- 
times are painful and mysterious to our human 
hearts. We see others enjoying themselves 
outside of the limit which we cannot pass. 
Be it so! The enjoyment outside of that 
limit is for others, not for us. There are 
wealth, and wisdom, and social privileges, 



BE PATIENT. 



67 



and religious instruction, and Holy Ghost 
preaching outside of our limit, but they are 
for others and not for us. God's people are 
mingling with one another in the holy fervor 
of love and joy, outside of our limit, but we 
must be weaned even from God's people, in 
order to have God Himself. We must sacri- 
fice the richest privileges and enjoyments to 
the arrangements of Providence, and then 
we shall have for our own inside of our 
limit, the God of Providence. Praise the 
Lord. 

" Take down then your harps from the 
willows. Rejoice in spirit all who have 
taken the Lord for their portion. Amid all 
your sorrows, temptations and trials, amid all 
the sins and the anguish of our fallen world, 
praise the Lord. Let the praise of the Lord 
be continually in your mouth. Think not 
that you must cease to praise in order to 
pray. Pray, but praise also. In a very im- 



68 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



portant sense praise is prayer. Praise is the 
highest prayer. Praise is the prayer of 
angels." — Up ham. 

2. Be fatient with your family and with 
your fellow- Christians. Do not fret nor 
worry because things sometimes go awry 
either in the home or in the church. The 
great and good John Wesley said that he 
was no more permitted to fret and worry 
than to curse and swear. It is not work that 
kills people before their time so much as 
worry. It is more the gnawing, corroding 
every day little cares of life, than the great 
and overwhelming sorrows, that bring us 
down to the grave; and so we need a Savior 
not less, but if possible even more, in the 
commonplace wear and tear of daily toil and 
daily trial, than even in the more severe and 
more exceptional afflictions that cross our 
path. Peter exhorts us to cast all our care — 
great and small — upon Him with the blessed 



BE PATIENT. 



69 



assurance that He careth for us. In the 
midst of perplexities and vexations, fray. 
Jesus taught us how to pray, not only in the 
so-called Lord's prayer, but in his interces- 
sory prayer for His people in the 17th of 
John and in various other passages. He 
taught His disciples more especially how to 
pray than how to preach. It is infinitely 
more important to have power with God 
than with men. This has been the secret of 
the power of the greatest saints in all ages. 
Luther prayed from three to five hours 
a day. Whitefield " prayed all night and 
preached all day." George Fox, according 
to Wm. Penn, exhibited in prayer " the 
most awful living reverent frame " that he 
had ever witnessed. And thus by casting 
your burden upon the Lord and expecting 
Him to fulfill his promise that He will sus- 
tain you, you may be kept from all impa- 
tience, all anger and all fretfulness. These 



70 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



things imply a want of submissiveness and a 
want of trust in God. Some Christians seem 
to think that they ought to bear and can 
bear with composure and submission the 
trials which come directly from God, but 
they are not bound to bear with the unreas- 
onableness or the petty faults of their own 
families, or of the members of their church. 
Now nearly all of our troubles come from 
somebody's carelessness, or indifference, or 
jealousy, or hostility, or even it may be mal- 
ice and vindictiveness. If we are to be 
placed where no one misunderstands us or 
misrepresents us, or in some way or other ill- 
treats us, we must needs go out of the world. 
If we never meet with anything calculated 
to stir up our impatience, we should not 
have need of the many exhortations to pa- 
tience. 

But consider — have you never had any 
need of patience from your wife, or husband, 



BE PATIENT 



71 



or children, or parents, or friends? Has 
your minister never found any thing in you 
which mayhap sent him to his knees in 
prayer that his patience might be preserved 
toward you ? Is there nothing in your own 
character or conduct which has many a time 
needed and received the prayerful forbear- 
ance of your fellow church members? "It 
is only imperfection that complains of that 
which is imperfect." Will you be impatient 
with the mote in your brother's eye, when 
there is a beam in your own eye ? Is it eas- 
ier for you to perceive and to confess his 
faults than your own? Oh! beloved, be 
patient; patient with the wife of your bosom, 
patient with the husband of your affection, 
patient with your wayward son or giddy 
daughter, patient with your brethren and 
sisters, patient with your servants, patient 
with your pastor, patient with your congre- 
gation, patient with your fellow- Chistians, for 
Christ's sake. 



72 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

3. Be patient with the unsaved. Do not 
be surprised nor disheartened because they do 
not come to Christ at a single invitation from 
your lips. How many loving invitations did 
you yourself reject or neglect? How many 
days or weeks or precious years did you lose 
by procrastination before you gave your 
heart to Christ? Deal tenderly and lovingly 
with the sinner, and yet be firm and decided 
in giving him the whole counsel of God. 
Do not compromise with his sin. Do not 
flatter him with the deceptive notion that his 
situation is anything else than a dangerous 
one, and do not allow him to think for a 
moment that he can be saved in his sins. 
Pray for him and induce him by all your 
powers of persuasion to pray for himself. 
If he is in doubt or perplexity, let him pray. 
Remind him that when he was in school or 
college and got into perplexity about some 
difficult point in his studies, he went at once 



BE PATIENT. 



73 



to his teacher or professor and asked for as- 
sistance. Let him do likewise in this matter 
of his salvation. Let him go and tell Jesus 
all about his doubts and difficulties. He can 
unravel them as no man can do. 

And be patient both with individual wick- 
edness and with great and small public evils. 
Do all you can to stem the torrent of evil. 
Use your influence and your efforts against 
everything that is wrong amongst those 
around you, and in your state and nation. 
But whilst thus doing you may always by 
the grace of God maintain your meekness 
and quietness of spirit. Such a spirit is not 
weak but strong. It is mighty with the 
power of faith. It believes that God reigns; 
that His hand is at the helm of affairs ; that 
the truth shall eventually succeed and prosper 
because Omnipotence is on its side; that every- 
thing false has in it the elements of its own 
destruction; that God and one are a majority 



74 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



in every good cause, and that He is slowly, 
but surely, working out His own grand and 
glorious purposes. Maintain, then, your 
equipoise. Maintain in the deep quiet of 
your own soul the ceaseless tranquillity that 
arises from harmony with God's will. Let 
the heathen rage, let kingdoms rise and fall, 
let political parties struggle and flourish and 
pass away, let the potsherds of the earth strive 
with one another, yet shall not you " fear 
though the earth be removed and though the 
mountains be carried into the midst of the 
sea." "The Lord of Hosts is with us; the 
God of Jacob is our refuge." Be ye patient, 
beloved, as God is patient. Amen. 



CHAPTER V. 



BE HOLY. 

This is a positive command addressed to all 
God's people both in the Old Testament and 
the New ; and the only reason given by the 
Holy Ghost for so sublime an injunction is 
the equally sublime declaration that God is 
holy. 

Holiness is that state of heart which results 
from the destruction or removal of inbred sin. 
This last is called in the Bible, the flesh — the 
carnal mind — the old man — and the body of 
sin — while by modern theologians it is termed 
depravity or original sin. 

It is that inborn tendency to evil which the 
whole human race has received by inheritance 
(75) 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



from our first parents in their fallen condi- 
tion. Both Holy Scripture and all human 
experience testify to the fact that there is 
something within us, even from our earliest 
infancy, which gives us a bias or proclivity 
towards the wrong, something which just as 
soon as we come to years of understanding 
and responsibility, inclines us to choose the 
evil and refuse the good, to yield to tempta- 
tion and to say yes to Satan, while we say no 
to God. This is what Paul calls the sin that 
dwelleth in us. It is sin as distinguished 
from sins. Sin is one, but sins are many. 
Sin is the root, sins are the fruits. Sin is 
the inward cause, sins are the outward 
effects. Sin is as old as the garden of Eden, 
sins have been committed by us each only in 
his own short lifetime. Sin is a disease, sins 
are the symptoms. Sin needs removal or 
cleansing, or destruction, or burning up ; sins 
need forgiveness or pardon. 



BE HOLY. 



77 



There is, therefore, a being of sin, back of 
the doing of sin. " Behold," says David, " I 
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my 
mother conceive me." An English writer 
has remarked : " A man is not a sinner simply 
because he does evil ; he does evil because he 
is a sinner." He is a sinner by nature, and 
you may train him as you will in his unre- 
generate state, evil will still come out of him 
because it is in him. 

Now the first thought and for a time al- 
most the only thought of the convicted sin- 
ner is about his sins. Guilt and condem- 
nation press heavily upon him on account of 
his iniquities, that is to say, on account of his 
innumerable positive overt transgressions of 
God's law ; sins of omission and sins of com- 
mission; secret sins and open sins; sins 
against God and sins against man. And the 
thing which he wants and which he must 
have is pardon. If he be a true penitent he 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



cries for mercy. He exclaims with David, 
" Have mercy upon me, O God, according to 
thy loving kindness, according unto the mul- 
titude of thy tender mercies, blot out my 
transgressions." And when the Lord gra- 
ciously hears and answers his prayer, he gets 
what he asks for, namely, the forgiveness of 
his sins. And this is justification. God for 
Christ's sake, looks upon him as though he 
had not sinned. Since Jesus has borne the 
penalty for him, both the mercy and the jus- 
tice of God are on the side of the penitent. 
He can be just and the justifier of him that 
believeth in Jesus. He not only forgives 
him but at once admits him to all the rights 
and privileges of a righteous man. His 
mercy pardons, his justice justifies, and now 
such an individual feels that being justified 
by faith, he has peace with God, through our 
Lord Jesus Christ. At the same time that 
he is justified, he is also regenerated and 



BE HOLY. 



79 



adopted, and receives, sometimes at once, 
sometimes a little later, the witness of the 
Spirit testifying with his spirit that he is a 
child of God. Of such a one we say that he 
is converted. 

Now observe that in this experience it is 
sins that are washed away in the blood of 
Jesus — removed as far off as the east is from 
the west, — and never again brought into 
remembrance against us. But as for sin it 
still remains in the heart. It exists but it 
docs not reign. Its power is broken, so that 
by the grace of God and constant watchful- 
ness and prayer, it may be kept continually 
in subjection. The converted man may and 
should be kept from all committed sin. It is 
a spurious conversion which does not pre- 
serve its possessor from actual sinning. But 
sin, the inward principle of evil is not and 
cannot be gotten rid of by a process or an 
act of forgiveness. It requires another and a 



80 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

subsequent work of grace to destroy the 
body of sin, and the individual who is the 
subject of this second experience, becomes 
thereby a sanctified or a holy man. His 
heart is cleansed from the remains of carnal- 
ity, and he enters into the experience of holi- 
ness. 

In most instances within a few days or at 
most a few weeks after conversion, persons 
find the arising of sinful thoughts or passions 
or desires in their hearts which they at once 
know to be contrary to God's law. It may 
be pride, or anger, or unholy desires, or self- 
will, or an unlawful appetite, or envy, or 
jealousy, or covetousness, or ambition. Now 
whatever may be the form of the evil fruit, 
it springs in every instance from the corrupt 
tree. By watchfulness and prayer such per- 
sons may be enabled to suppress these evil 
tendencies; they may not break out into any 
overt act of wrong, but they are sensible of a 



BE HOLY. 



Si 



great clamor within — they strive for the 
mastery while on the other hand the old 
man struggles to break his bonds — and an 
irrepressible conflict arises in the soul between 
the desire to do good on the one hand, and 
the unceasing hindering presence of evil on 
the other. As a sister said in my hearing : — 
" Such individuals c boil,' even if they do not 
« boil over.' " 

Now we maintain and we believe most 
surely that the Scripture maintains, that this 
life of unceasing inward conflict with the 
evil tendencies of nature is not the best ex- 
perience of the Christian. We affirm that 
Paul did not tell us his best experience in the 
Seventh of Romans, where he cries out: — 
"O wretched man that I am, who shall de- 
liver me from this body of death?" but in 
the Eighth, where he says: "The law of the 
spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me 
free from the law of sin and death," The 



82 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

blood of Jesus is sufficient not only to secure 
the pardon of our sins, but it cleanseth us also 
from all sin. Jesus is made of God unto us, 
not only wisdom and justification, but also 
sanctification and redemption. 

And accordingly we find throughout the 
New Testament, injunctions and commands, 
always addressed to Christian believers, to 
be holy, to be perfect, to be sanctified wholly, 
to crucify the flesh, to be delivered wholly 
from the carnal mind, to be dead to sin — and 
there are thousands of witnesses to-day who 
are gladly testifying that the blood of Jesus 
cleanseth them from all sin, and that the 
God of peace sanctifies them wholly. 

This experience is always subsequent to 
conversion, but it should not be placed too 
long after it. When the newly converted 
Christian perceives his need of a holy heart, 
and that is when he is sensible of evil ten- 
dencies and dispositions within him, that is 



BE HOLY. 



83 



the time he should seek and find the priceless 
blessing of heart purity, and that is the time 
at which God is willing and anxious to give 
it to him. 

Some Christians and some churches as 
such, believe that holiness can only be ob- 
tained at the hour of death. But death is not 
a sanctifier, and if Jesus is our Sanctification 
and the Holy Spirit our Sanctifier,why should 
the work be postponed to the end of life ? Does 
not God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost 
desire our sanctification till the hour of 
death? Does He not want a holy people on 
earth as well as in heaven ? and is He not 
able and willing to separate sin from the 
soul, till death is separating the soul from the 
body? If He is not able, where is His omni- 
potence ? If He is not willing, where is His 
own holiness? Does He wish us to continue 
a day or an hour in our sins? Far be it from 
Him. Sanctification in its entireness is 



84 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

not only a preparation for death and for 
heaven, but also a preparation for life and 
for work. Therefore, my beloved reader, 
seek and find holiness as a gift of God now. 

And how shall you seek, and how shall 
you find? First, by making an unalterable 
and an unreserved and a complete consecra- 
tion to God. You yielded yourself to Him 
at conversion that you might be forgiven 
and saved. You must yield to Him now in 
a fuller, more intelligent, more detailed sur- 
render of all your faculties and powers, to 
be His, only His, and His forever. " Yield 
yourselves unto God," says Paul to the Ro- 
man Christians, "not as those who are dead in 
trespasses and sins, but as those who are alive 
from the dead, and your members as instru- 
ments of righteousness unto God." 

This is consecration, and you must not con- 
found it with entire sanctification, a mistake 
which is often made. The difference is this: 



BE HOLY. 



85 



consecration is your own act; sanctification 
is God's act; consecration is the human side 
of holiness, entire sanctification is performed 
in the heart by the direct energy of the Holy 
Ghost. By a definite act, in express words, 
and if you chose in writing surrender your- 
self, your possessions, your time, your talents, 
your reputation, your affections, and in a 
word, your all into God's hands. Ask Him 
to search your heart. If there are idols 
there, give them up relentlessly to death. 
If there are heart sins, ask Him to destroy 
them. If there is a right eye to be plucked 
out, or a right hand to be cut off, or a natural 
life to lay down, do not hesitate. Go dead 
and stay dead to everything but God's will. 
Write your name as it were at the bottom of 
a blank sheet of paper and let him fill it up. 
Several years ago, I saw in an English peri- 
odical a form of consecration like the follow- 
ing which I have often recommended to my 



86 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



audiences and to individuals, with excellent 
results: 

I am willing: — 

To receive what Thou givest. 

To lack what Thou withholdest. 

To relinquish what Thou takest. 

To suffer what Thou inflictest. 

To be what Thou requirest. 

To do what Thou commandest. 

The beautiful consecration hymn of Fran- 
ces Ridley Havergal is no doubt well known 
to my readers. 

It matters not, however, about the form. 
The point is to do the work thoroughly and 
forever. Lay everything upon the altar and 
never take it off. Give to God as it were in 
one package, all your present, and all your 
past, and all you know; and in another all 
your future, and all you do not know. Like 
the sainted John S. Inskip, declare for your- 
self: — " I am, O Lord, wholly and forever 
Thine." 



BE HOLY. 



87 



And secondly, believe that the sacrifice is 
accepted. Ask for the fire to come, the fire 
which consumes the dross and tin, nay, in 
your case consumes the sin, and believe that 
you now receive what you ask for, even the 
priceless blessing of a clean heart. Entire 
sanctification, like every other gospel bless- 
ing, is to be received by faith. And for so 
great a blessing you will require a very high 
degree of faith. Take, then, God's promises, 
and ask Him to enable you to grasp the 
blessing with full assurance of faith, and 
rest assured that in this, as in all other things 
which He has promised you, according to 
your faith it shall be unto you. 

Do not expect to feel before you believe, 
but after you do so. There are two ways 
in which God makes known to the believer 
that Jesus by the spirit and the blood sancti- 
fies him wholly. First is the evidence of 
the word. Listen to that: " If we ask any- 



88 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

thing according to His will, He heareth us," 
and if we know that He hears us whatsoever 
we ask we know that we have the petitions 
which we desired of Him. In a state of 
complete surrender to him, then, you ask for 
a clean heart. That is according to His will. 
You ask for entire sanctification, that is ac- 
cording to His will. You ask for perfect 
love, that is according to His will. There- 
fore on the testimony of the word you are 
bound to believe that you have what you 
have asked for. Believe therefore, on the 
simple declaration of the Inspired Book, and 
when you have done this in due time 
and in most instances it is a very short time, 
you .will have the other evidence, and that is 
the witness of the Spirit testifying with your 
spirit that the work is done, and making you 
certain of the fact, and giving you all the 
feeling that you can desire, and all that you 
can contain. Do not then reverse God's 



BE HOLY. 



8 9 



order. Believe first on the evidence of God's 
simple promises, and receive next the testi- 
mony of the Spirit to your conscious and 
present cleansing from all sin. 

But some hesitate to grasp so great a 
blessing by a present faith for fear they will 
not be able to retain it, and some who have 
obtained it, for it is always obtained, never 
attained, ask with solicitude, "how shall I 
keep the blessing?" 

I answer, keep it as you got it. Retain it 
as you obtained it. Change the pronoun 
and say He instead of it. And He shall 
keep you instead of you keeping it. Jesus 
is both your Savior and your keeper. " The 
Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade 
upon thy right hand." 

Paul says to the Colossians: "As ye have 
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye 
in him." And if you, my reader, have re- 
ceived Jesus as your entire sanctification, if 



gO INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



you have the indwelling Holy Ghost to-day 
as your sanctifier, how did you thus receive 
Him? 

You received Him first in a belief that it 
is possible to be sanctified wholly. Many 
Christians and even many Christian ministers 
believe otherwise. They do not think holi- 
ness is possible, that the soul can be purified 
and fitted for heaven, till it is just ready to 
leave the body and is pluming its flight for 
the skies. Some, alas, would fain persuade 
themselves that there is a chance to be made 
holy even after death, by some kind of 
a second probation or Roman Catholic pur- 
gatory. But you have not so learned Christ; 
you found in his blessed word that He re- 
quires you to be holy now, and of course 
makes it your privilege to be holy now; and 
in that belief you received Him, and in that 
belief you must walk in Him. No doubt 
you will meet with objectors and cavillers, 



BE HOLY. 



9 1 



not all of them unsaved sinners, but many 
of them good, justified believers, who will 
try to dispossess you of this confidence, and 
they will quote this, that or the other text 
of Scripture, proving as they allege that 
sin must continue in us till death. But be 
firm to your convictions, say as Jesus said 
to Satan : " It is written again," and if you 
are not able to argue, you can at least tes- 
tify that the blood of Jesus Christ does 
cleanse you from all sin. And a testimony 
like that humbly and sincerely made for 
the glory of God is worth more than ar- 
gument. 

If Jesus is your sanctification, you received 
Him also in an earnest desire for holiness. 
You hungered and thirsted for full salva- 
tion, now you must keep zip yozir spiritual 
appetite, you will still need daily supplies of 
grace as you need your daily food for the 
body. And do not suppose that because you 



92 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

are sanctified wholly there is no more for 
you to do, or no more for you to receive. 
You have crossed the Jordan and are in the 
land, but now you must walk through the 
land and see its beauties as they are revealed 
to you from time to time by the Holy Ghost. 
If your pathway is sometimes rough it is a 
sign that you are making progress. You 
are not travelling round and round in a circle, 
you are in the highway and are likely to get 
somewhere. Keep on hungering and thirst- 
ing for the more that is to follow. Let every 
stopping place be a new starting place, and 
let your progress ever ho from glory to glory. 

Again, you received Jesus as your entire 
sanctification in a state of complete surrender 
to Him, you consecrated yourself and your 
all to Him. The language of your heart 
was: " Not my will but Thine be done in all 
things." In that same surrender you must 
walk in Him. No part of the sacrifice must 



BE HOLY. 



93 



be taken back. You place all on the altar 
to-day, not that it may be taken off again 
to-morrow, but that it may be kept on the 
altar forever. If at any time or in anything 
you feel your will rising in opposition to 
God's will or providence, check such a rising 
at once. " Thy will be done;" let this be 
the continual attitude of your heart and the 
frequent utterance of your lips. 

Do not voluntarily give place to any sug- 
gestions of Satan, for if you cherish a single 
rebellious thought against God, or if you 
give way to any unhallowed desire or worldly 
lust, you begin to lose the witness of the 
spirit, the crowning evidence of your sancti- 
fication; you begin to lose your faith, your 
obedience will follow suit; that is, you will 
be tempted to disobey, and are too likely to 
fall into actual backsliding. You cannot 
make a start upon the highway of holiness 
without consecration, and you cannot walk a 



94 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

step upon it without constant persistence in 
your surrender. 

And then as you received Him by faith 
you must walk in Him with a continuous, an 
abiding, an unswerving and an appropriating 
faith. If your faith is thus strong and active 
and determined, all will be right. Ever 
since Abraham's days and before them, God 
always favors the man who believes Him. 
And the sanctified Christian, more than any 
one else, knows what it is to walk by faith. 
Believe then, only believe; believe that God 
is now giving you the Holy Spirit, and 
hence that you now have Him. Believe 
that the blood cleanseth now. Believe that 
He careth for you even in the darkest hour. 
Believe that He is working in you to will 
and to do of His good pleasure. Believe all 
His promises concerning you. All things 
are possible to Him that believeth. Praise 
the Lord. 



BE HOLY. 



95 



Now you must understand that entire 
sanctification, like justification, is a sudden 
and an instantaneous work. It is not a mat- 
ter of growth, nor of development, nor of 
gradualism. No doubt there may be grad- 
ual processes of self -discipline and of growth 
before the point is reached at which you 
make an absolute and unconditional surren- 
der, but when that point is reached, the Holy 
Spirit does His work, just as is the case with 
regeneration, in a moment of time. And 
then after this work of cleansing is per- 
formed by the fiery baptism of the Holy 
Ghost, there may be and will be an indefin- 
ite growth and expansion in all righteousness 
and goodness and truth. 

Moses said to the Lord's people of old, 
" And the Lord thy God will put out those 
nations before thee by little and little." 
This does not typify a gradual sanctification 
but an overcoming or removing — after your 



96 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

sanctification — of one thing after another 
either in your character or in your surround- 
ings which may be in the way of your 
religious progress. 

If a man is sanctified, while in the habit of 
using tobacco or alcohol, he will be con- 
strained and enabled to abandon the habit, 
and will be freed from the appetite, so that 
particular enemy will be destroyed. Next, it 
may be, a certain rudeness of manner or 
speech which he may have acquired while 
living a life of sin, will be put out of his way 
in answer to prayer. And then his peculiar 
weaknesses, of whatever character, for their 
name is legion and they are widely different 
in different individuals — just so far as they 
are hindrances or disabilities in the way of 
the complete sweetening up of his character 
and the complete possession of all the land of 
his heart for Christ, are put away from be- 
fore him. This is done by little and little as 



BE HOLY. 



97 



he sees these hindrances and trusts God to 
remove them. Beloved, is it not true of 
many who were sanctified, it may be years 
ago, that as in the case of the Israelites, 
" There remaineth much land to be pos- 
sessed" 

Oh, that God's children everywhere may 
get on to this highway of holiness and then 
walk on it. 

You wish to go to Liverpool. By a 
single step — the work of a moment — a vol- 
untary definite act of your own — you get on 
board the steamer at New York, you surren- 
der yourself to the keeping of the steamer 
and her officers. If you distrust the steamer 
and her commander and decline to go on 
board, of course you do not reach your des- 
tination. You may of your own accord leap 
overboard after the voyage has begun — that 
would be suicide. But you go on board 
and remain on board, that is your part. The 



98 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



steamer under the command of her intelli- 
gent captain, brings you to your desired 
haven. You surrender yourself and your 
baggage to her keeping. She does the rest. 
You do not go on board more and more, 
nor surrender to her more and more, but you 
simply give yourself up to her and remain 
so given up, and she brings you more and 
more toward the European shores till you 
arrive there. 

In like manner by a definite act of sur- 
render and trust, the soul of the believer is 
brought into complete union with Christ, 
and then if he abides in that union he is 
brought along, burdens and all, toward the 
heavenly shore. He may fail through unbe- 
lief or disobedience to experience the con- 
summation of the union, and then although 
redeemed he will not walk upon the high- 
way of holiness, though he may be saved at 
the last " so as by fire." After the blessed 



BE HOLY. 



99 



union has taken place he still has the suicidal 
power of sundering it. But if he surrenders 
and trusts and abides, Jesus does the rest. 
He does not consecrate himself more and 
more, nor experience the cleansing of his 
heart more and more, but he definitely and 
consciously and once for all yields his whole 
being to Christ. And then it is Christ who 
causes him more and more to increase in 
knowledge and in love and in grace; makes 
him more and more like Himself; adorns 
him more and more with the Christian 
graces; enables him to adorn the doctrine 
more and more in all things, and brings him 
more and more towards his heavenly home. 

He has a pure heart all the time, but the 
graces of holiness are increasingly developed 
and the fruit of the Spirit is brought forth in 
increasing amount in his daily life. He is 
sanctified, holy, perfect in the Scriptural 
sense of that term, but he grows in sanctifi- 



IOO INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS.. 



cation, he increases in holiness, he ripens in 
perfection; in a word, he is continually being 
changed " from glory to glory " by the 
transforming energy of the Spirit of our 
God. 

The negative side of holiness is heart pur- 
ity. In this there can be no growth or 
advancement. If a vessel is empty, it cannot 
be more empty. If a heart is pure, it cannot 
be more pure. But the positive side of holi- 
ness is perfect love, and in this there may be 
growth and increase through all time and for 
aught we know, all eternity. 

The heart that is filled with love to-day 
may hold more to-morrow. Two persons 
may both possess perfect love and yet one 
love more than the other, because he has a 
greater capacity of loving. Perfect love in 
a child is less than perfect love in a man or 
woman. Perfect love in a man or woman is 
less than perfect love in Michael or Gabriel. 



BE HOLY. 



IOI 



Perfect love in thee, my dear reader, is just 
all the love that thy poor little heart can con- 
tain; and every man, woman or child may 
have precisely that. Praise the Lord. 
" There will never be a time," says Dr. 
Upham, " on earth or in heaven, when there 
may not be an increase of holy love." 

It must be remembered moreover, that 
furity is one thing and maturity is quite 
another. The first is perfection in nature, 
the last is perfection in degree. Dr. G. D. 
Watson, in one of his published sermons, 
remarks most fitly: " A pure hill of corn is 
one thing, and a grown hill of corn is an- 
other. One may be but an inch high and 
be pure; another may be large but diseased. 
A Christian may be but a month old, and be 
a pure Christian; another may be a Christian 
fifty years old, and not be a pure Chris- 
tian." 

Entire sanctification is health of soul. A 



102 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

healthy child needs but to be properly fed 
and cared for, in order to grow rapidly and 
symmetrically, and develop into a strong 
man. But if the child has some constitu- 
tional disease, such as scrofula or rickets, its 
growth will most likely be irregular, dis- 
torted, dwarfish, and the result may even 
be permanent deformity. If, however, you 
can give to such a child, a medicine which 
shall permeate its tissues and remove all the 
disease, making it a healthy child, then it will 
assimilate its food, and grow just as if it had 
been born in good health. 

Now, spiritually, we are all brought into 
this world the subjects of a constitutional 
disease — the fearful malady of inbred sin. 
And this is not removed at conversion. It 
cannot be forgiven away, but it must be 
cleansed away. It cannot be pardoned; 
it must be cured. The Church of England 
is entirely right in saying in the creed: 



BE HOLY. 



"This infection of nature doth remain, yea, 
even in them that have been regenerated." 

And so long as it does thus remain, whilst 
there may be growth, yet it is not a healthy 
and vigorous growth, but tardy and irregu- 
lar, the result being in too many instances 
stunted, dwarfish, narrow-minded and one- 
sided Christians. 

If, however, by the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost and sprinkling of the blood of 
Jesus Christ this infection is removed, and 
spiritual health thus given to the believer, he 
is now in a condition to partake of the sin- 
cere milk of the word and to grow thereby, 
yea, and he quickly cuts his teeth, and can 
masticate and digest the " strong meat " as 
well. He eats giants' food, and so becomes 
a giant himself — a spiritual athlete who can 
" do exploits" for the Lord. He grows from 
strength to strength. Having clean hands, 
he grows stronger and stronger; having a 



IO4 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



pure heart, he ascends into the hill of the 
Lord, and stands in His holy place. He be- 
longs to that class of believers of whom it is 
said that " They shall still bring forth fruit 
in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing." 
Praise the Lord. 

Beloved, " Be ye holy." 

Amen. 



CHAPTER VI. 



BE FILLED. 

It is one thing to cleanse a vessel from all 
defilement, It is another thing to fill it up 
to the brim with precious oil. Christians 
are positively commanded to be filled with 
the Spirit. This filling always either accom- 
panies or follows closely upon the emptying 
and cleansing. The soul must be filled with 
something. " Nature abhors a vacuum," 
and so also does grace. If you are full of 
yourself and of earthly pleasure, and of sel- 
fish interests, you have no vacancy, and in 
that state you may not be filled with the 
Spirit. Pray first to be emptied, and next to 
be filled. 

(105) 



106 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

Christ's baptism with the Holy Ghost and 
fire is intended for all believers. It is what 
the church of the hundred and twenty men 
and women received at Pentecost, and it was 
by means of this that they experienced the 
purifying of their hearts by faith, which is 
the same thing as entire sanctification, and 
they obtained also the enduement of power, 
which is qualification to do whatsoever God 
wants us to do. 

And when the Holy Ghost, in answer to 
the prayer of faith, is poured out in baptiz- 
ing power upon the consecrated heart. He 
first consumes the sin, and cleanses the 
temple, and then He does not go away but 
fills up the cleansed heart with himself, and 
remains a continual, ever-present, abiding 
Guest, and where the Holy Spirit is there 
also are the Father and the Son. Stupendous 
thought! that the Infinite Deity conde- 
scends to dwell in the sanctified heart. 



BE FILLED. 



Beloved, are you consecrated wholly to 
God? Do you desire Him in the person of 
the ever-blessed Spirit, to come in and abide 
with you, not as a transient visitor, but as a 
permanent Guest? Then open the door, 
give Him the keys, ask Him in faith to come 
in and remain. Adopt Whittier's beautiful 
lines i 

" The windows of my soul I throw 
Wide open to the sun." 

And most assuredly the Sun of Righteous- 
ness, by His Representative, the Holy Spirit, 
will sweep into your heart, and sweep out 
all that antagonizes Him, and then you may 
rest assured that He has come to stay. He 
will not be anxious to leave you, after so pro- 
longed an effort to find entrance into your 
heart. Nothing but sin can dislodge Him. 
He will fill you, and energize you, and use 
you, and make your life full of active and 
joyous service for Him. 



IOS INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

By Christ's baptism with the Holy Ghost 
then you are instantaneously filled, and then 
if you will abide in Him and do not grieve 
Him by unbelief or disobedience, you re- 
main filled. You may not always be 
conscious from your feelings, of His pres- 
ence in your heart, but remember that Christ 
dwells in our hearts by faith, not by feeling. 

He is always there whether your emotional 
nature responds to His presence or not. He 
is there whether you have rapture or ecstacy, 
or whether you are almost or quite devoid of 
feeling. Learn to regard the indwelling 
Spirit then as a constant personal presence 
in your heart. Look upon Him by faith as 
a present Guide, Keeper, Counsellor, Com- 
forter and Sanctifier. " Be filled with the 
Spirit." 

Personal experiences differ as to the time 
and manner of the Holy Ghost baptism. 
With some it is a veritable pentecostal exper- 



BE FILLED. 



ence — like the rushing mighty wind and the 
cloven tongues of fire — with others it is the 
still small voice and the silent heaven of love. 
Some are at first only conscious of the cleans- 
ing, and after a day or a week or a month 
become conscious of the filling also. The 
Holy Ghost seldom repeats Himself, at least 
in all particulars in the experience of differ- 
ent individuals, or of the same individual at 
different times. Let Him have His own 
way, and let us be passive in His hands, not 
expecting nor desiring the experience of 
some one else, but desiring only to be filled 
with the Holy Ghost. 

To prevent perplexity, however, I will re- 
mark, that I believe entire sanctification and 
the filling of the Spirit have such a relation 
to each other that whoever has one has the 
other. If you are filled with the Spirit you 
are sanctified wholly. If you are sanctified 
wholly you are filled with the Spirit, 



IIO INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



whether the filling be a conscious one, or 
only by faith. Exactly parallel are the ex- 
periences realized at conversion. Whoever 
is justified is regenerated also, whoever is re- 
generated is justified — the two blessings or 
works of grace accompany each other. 
And on these four pillars, justification and 
regeneration on the one hand, and entire 
sanctification and the fullness of the Spirit 
on the other, stands the glorious temple of 
full salvation, while the pillars themselves 
are founded upon the eternal Rock — 
the Rock of Ages — Christ Jesus our Lord. 

The Church of the Pentecost received not 
only the cleansing of their hearts, but the 
induement of power on the reception of 
Holy Ghost baptism. Jesus had told them 
to tarry at Jerusalem till they should be en- 
dued with power from on high, after which, 
but not before, they were to go into all the 
world and preach the gospel to every 



BE FILLED. 



1 1 I 



creature. Under the new power thus given, 
Peter at once arose and preached to the as- 
sembled multitude, composed of people out 
of every nation under heaven, and the prick- 
ing of the heart that followed his burning 
words was so wide-spread and so intense 
that the same day there were added to them 
about three thousand souls, more conversions, 
in other words, under the very first sermon 
with the Holy Ghost power, than had been 
effected by all the Apostles, and the Seventy 
through all their preaching before they were 
thus endued with power from on high. 

This Holy Ghost power does not consist 
in eloquence or learning, nor personal mag- 
netism ; it may be given to those who are des- 
titute of all such human aids and influences, 
or it may be added to these human accom- 
plishments, thus making them two fold more 
effective in reaching the hearts of the hear- 
ers. It is just the power of speaking to men 



112 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



and women in such a way as shall touch 
their hearts and win their souls to Christ. 

And surely just this power is what the 
church of Christ needs in all periods of its 
history for the great work for which it is 
commissioned — even the evangelization of 
the world. The exhortation is just as appli- 
cable now as in Isaiah's time: "Awake, 
awake, put on thy strength, O Zion ; put on 
thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the 
holy city: for henceforth there shall no more 
come into thee the uncircumcised and the un- 
clean." 

And as the church at large cannot perform 
its mission in being the light of the world 
and the salt of the earth, without the gar- 
ments of holiness and the enduement of 
power, no more can individual believers. 
Ministers of the gospel, Sabbath-school 
teachers, church officers, Christian workers, 
missionaries at home and abroad, and in a 



BE FILLED. 



word, every Christian believer should earn- 
estly seek and pray for the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost, not only that his or her heart 
may be sanctified wholly, but that he or she 
may be qualified to do just what God re- 
quires of him or her. 

As there is a work for each of us, so the 
necessary qualification for that work is to be 
found in obedience to the command, "Be 
filled with the Spirit." 

The same work is not assigned to all, and 
the same gifts are not bestowed upon all. 
There are diversities of gifts but the same 
Spirit; but the gift of the Spirit Himself, 
promised by the Father and bestowed by the 
Son, it is the privilege of every child of God 
to obtain. Beloved, seek and find and have 
this inestimable gift, and do it now. 

The pentecostal experience according to 
Peter is " promised to all that are afar off, 
even as many as the Lord our God shall 



114, INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

call." It was not therefore confined to the 
apostolic age, but is for the church of Christ 
and all its members in all times. But to the 
individual Christian, Pentecost comes but 
once. Only once does each believer receive 
the baptism with the Holy Ghost, unless he 
loses the blessing by backsliding — and even 
then while he may be restored through peni- 
tence and faith and prayer — it will most 
likely not be with the same accompanying 
phenomena as at first. 

Hence to be strictly accurate and scrip- 
tural, we should not speak of many baptisms, 
nor of a baptism of love, nor a baptism 
of power, nor a baptism of work, nor a bap- 
tism of common sense, but aim simply and 
definitely to obtain the baptism with the 
Holy Ghost, not a fresh baptism every time 
our hearts are warmed, but the one baptism 
which cleaneth and endureth and abideth. 

It is blessedly true indeed that for every 



BE FILLED. 



"5 



act of service we shall be anointed with fresh 
oil, that like the disciples in the fourth of 
Acts, if we are in the midst of danger and 
perils on every side we shall receive a holy 
boldness to go forward in the discharge of 
duty at whatever cost, that we shall receive 
many girdings and fillings for the special 
service to which we may at any time be 
called; but these are wholly different from 
the baptism received once for all, which puri- 
fies the heart and endues with power and fills 
with the Spirit. 

And when, beloved, you are thus filled 
with the Spirit, He will permeate every 
avenue of your being. He will influence the 
intellect by communicating truth to you both 
directly and instrumentally, but chiefly 
through the written or the preached word, 
and by widening your apprehension, and 
strengthening your comprehension of the 
things that accompany salvation. He will 



Il6 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

give you a spirit of discernnient — eyes that 
you may see, and ears that you may hear and 
hearts that you may understand — so that you 
will be able to distinguish both in yourselves 
and in others between the precious and the 
vile, and between what is of God and what 
is of Satan. You will know the voice of the 
true Shepherd, and be able also to recognize 
the voice of the stranger, so that you may 
flee from him, whether he comes as a twin- 
ing serpent or a roaring lion, or an angel of 
light. " He that is spiritual discerneth all 
things, yet he himself is discerned of no 
man." 

And then He will regulate your sensibili- 
ties, so that you shall have just the right 
kind and the right amount of feeling. Relig- 
ion does not consist in feeling, but it is ac- 
companied by feeling, and feeling is by no 
means to be discarded or undervalued in its 
proper place. But feeling will vary accord- 



BE FILLED. 



1I 7 



ing to our surroundings, and our state of 
mind or body. If we judge of our spiritual 
state therefore wholly or chiefly by our feel- 
ings, we shall be very likely to be led as- 
tray. 

Keep your faith fixed on jfesus^ and let 
Him take care of your feelings, just as He 
takes care of your outward circumstances. 
When your feelings are joyous and your 
whole soul filled with rapturous emotions, 
look to Jesus and praise Him. When your 
feelings are sad and you are inclined to 
depression or even tempted to discourage- 
ment, (which George Fox says always comes 
from the devil) still look to Jesus and praise 
Him. 

Keep your faith right and your feelings 
will take care of themselves. 

A religion without feeling tends to degen- 
erate into mere formality, and it is the form 
without the life. A religion which is all 



Il8 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

feeling tends to fanaticism and wild-fire. A 
religion of faith is the happy medium. Be 
filled with the Spirit, beloved, and you will 
have all the joy and all the emotion and all 
the feeling that is best for you. 

And then He will regulate your volitions 
also. The will is that mysterious part of 
our constitution which rules all the other 
powers, and yet how often is the will itself 
enslaved to the lower and baser propensities 
of man's nature. Jesus will make it free. 
And " whom the Son makes free, he shall 
be free indeed." If you are filled with the 
Spirit, He will enable you continually and 
persistently to will what God wills. Say 
then with Tennyson, 

" Our wills are ours we know not how 
Our wills are ours to make them Thine;" 

or with Frances Ridley Havergal, 
" Take my will and make it Thine 
It shall be no longer mine.'' 



BE FILLED. 



Ll 9 



Be filled with the Spirit and you will al- 
ways be under the constraining influence of 
the love of Christ, and that constraining 
influence will keep you ever active in His 
service up to the limit of your capacity, and 
being strong in His strength you shall " do 
exploits " for the Lord. 

Oh, for more spiritual athletes among 
the Christian men and women of our 
churches. 

Beloved, " Be strong in the Lord and in 
the power of His might," — " Be filled with 
the Spirit." Amen. 



CHAPTER VII. 



BE ESTABLISHED. 

The Apostle Paul wished the Colossian 
Church to be " rooted and built up in Him 
and established in the faith," and I think the 
same object would be a proper and a blessed 
one for Christians in our day to earnestly 
strive after and pray for. There is, I believe 
it will be admitted by all, a lamentable want 
of establishment, in other words, a lament- 
able instability among Christians every- 
where. 

They are getting into trouble on this point 
or on that, and letting go their hold, and too 
often falling into backsliding, or toning down 
their testimony and losing their communion, 
(120) 



BE ESTABLISHED. 



121 



and going back on their former experience, 
whether it be conversion or entire sanctifica- 
tion or both. 

Some fail of growth and establishment for 
want of definiteness in their experience. 
They did not have an out and out regenera- 
tion or an out and out sanctification, and have 
never definitely and positively and avowedly 
taken their stand as whole hearted Chris- 
tians. 

Such as these may find the advice suited 
to their case in our first chapter, on Definite- 
ness. 

You can hardly regard your experience as 
definite until you receive the witness of the 
Spirit, whether it be to regeneration or en- 
tire sanctification. Beseech God, then, in 
living faith, for this blessed witness, and 
claim His promise for the same, and give 
Him no rest till He grants your request. 

The great cause of want of establishment, 



122 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



however, is want of faith. Do not forget, 
beloved, that love will be in proportion to 
faith. If you believe in Jesus a little you 
will love Him a little — if you believe Him 
much, you will love Him much — if you be- 
lieve in Him with a perfect faith which ex- 
pels all doubt, you will love Him with a 
perfect love which expels all rivalry. Much 
depends on bringing your will power to 
bear in aid of your feeble faith. 

Strive to believe, will to believe, deter* 
mine to believe. This will be doing no vio- 
lence to the laws of your mental constitution. 
The child which has only recently come 
from its Creator's hands believes easily. 
Men believe with more difficulty, and it is 
because Satan gets hold of their believing 
power and paralyzes it, and prevents them 
from using it, till it grows weak and power- 
less. 

But take God's word, take His promise, 



BE ESTABLISHED. 



123 



plant yourself upon it. Declare to Him and 
to your fellow Christians that come what 
will, you are determined to believe God. 
And then by the constant exercises of faith 
in Him, and love to Him, you will grow and 
deepen and broaden and expand and develop 
and take deep root and become established in 
grace and in holiness. 

And then you must keep your testimony 
bright. You are a king and a priest — your 
kingdom is in your soul where Christ reigns 
and you reign with Him ; your priesthood is 
not outward, nor legal, nor Levitical, but 
Spiritual, and the offerings you are to make 
are not the blood of bulls and goats which 
cannot take away sin, but having been saved 
and sanctified through the offering of the 
body of Jesus Christ once for all, you are 
now by Him to offer the sacrifice of praise to 
God continually, that is the fruit of your lips 
giving thanks to His name. 



124 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

Then if you believe right you will be 
right; if you be right you will do right. 
God puts believing first, being second, doing 
third. 

Men reverse it and say it matters not what 
a man believes if he does right. Jesus says 
a corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit, 
and so God looks at the tree while man looks 
at the fruit. 

And yet the doing must not be overlooked 
or neglected in its right and proper place. 

" But to do good and to communicate for- 
get not, for with such sacrifices God is well 
pleased." That is the fruit of the lips and 
the fruit of the life. 

Says Rev. Wm. McDonald in his excellent 
little work entitled "Saved to the Utter- 
most" : " Be full of good works, Faith without 
works will soon die." God says, " Work ; " 
not as a condition of salvation, but as a con- 
dition of reward. Man is saved by faith, 



BE ESTABLISHED. 



but rewarded according to his works. No 
man ever became established in holiness who 
did not do in some way a good deal of hard 
work at soul saving and body blessing. 

And now, in approaching the conclusion of 
my book, I will remark that there are differ- 
ent stages of Christian life. 

In Solomon's Song we read of Christ: " I 
went down into the garden of nuts to see the 
fruits of the valley, and to see whether the 
vines flourished, and the pomegranates 
budded," (Chap. vi. n). 

In the second chapter there were signs of 
the Spring time. The passing away of the 
winter rains, the flowers springing up on the 
earth, the singing of birds, the voice of the 
turtle, the green figs, and the tender grapes. 

Again in the fourth chapter we are told of 
fruit trees, plants, and flowers, spices and 
frankincense, a garden well watered, and 
fragrant by the breathings of the Holy 



126 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



Spirit, " the north wind and the south." 

But here we are told of a still more ad- 
vanced experience: " The garden of nuts," 
"the fruits of the valley," the rich, ripe, 
autumnal experience of the maturing Chris- 
tian. 

Such fruits are produced only after re- 
peated trials and temptations, and usually a 
long course of discipline. They are memor- 
ial stones from the bottom of Jordan. They 
are the fruits of humiliation. He is the 
" lily of the valley " and He highly prizes 
the " fruits of the valley." Praise His 
Name. 

The " garden of nuts " and " fruits of the 
valley " represent the fathers and mothers in 
Christ's church, the flourishing vines the 
young men and women, and the budding 
pomegranates the babes. 

Thus the Lord has His eye upon each, 
looking for fruit in the long tried Christian, 



BE ESTABLISHED. 



I2 7 



for a flourishing state in His vineyard, and 
in the pomegranates for early buds." {Ade- 
laide New ton). 

Now the pomegranates are perfect in their 
budding, but not yet prepared to bring forth 
fruit like the vines. The vines are perfect 
and bringing forth fruit in their season, but 
not the rich, ripe, golden fruit of the garden 
of nuts. 

So in the church of Christ there are sanc- 
tified believers who are yet in the infancy of 
their Christian life — pure in heart but having 
little knowledge or strength. 

Christ will gently lead these young and 
tender lambs of His flock. He has many 
things to say unto them, and if they cannot 
bear them now yet shall they rapidly grow 
to that estate and that power of comprehen- 
sion in which they can bear them. Yea, and 
understand them and delight in them. 

Then there are those who are farther ad- 



128 



INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 



vanced in wisdom and strength, living 
branches of the living vine, bringing forth 
fruit to the praise of the Husbandman — the 
strong men and women in Christ Jesus, the 
flourishing vines. Praise the Lord for these. 
They are bearing the burden in the heat of 
the day, and without murmuring at the good 
man of the house. They are sowing the 
seed. They are pruning the vines. They 
have been pruned themselves and know how 
to apply the knife skilfully to the excres- 
ences, while they spare the living branches. 
They are guarding the flock. They are 
leading the lambs towards the heavenly fold. 
They are reaping the harvest. They are 
glorifying God and exalting His Kingdom 
in the earth. 

And the Lord loves them and helps them, 
and strengthens them and keeps them. The 
Holy Spirit guides them, and energizes them, 
and anoints them, and comforts them. Glory 
be to the Triune God. 



BE ESTABLISHED* 



I29 



And finally, there are some amongst every 
denomination of Christians, who after much 
chastening, it may be, after much of loving 
child-discipline, after enduring hardness — 
after fighting the good fight of faith on 
many a hard contested field, after many 
temptations and trials, after many afflic- 
tions and sorrows and disappointments, are 
enabled to bring forth the sweet lovely 
autumnal fruits of a ripened Christian char- 
acter. These are they who still bring forth 
fruit in old age, and are fat and flourishing. 

These are they whose youth is renewed 
like the eagle's. These are they upon the 
dial of whose lives the shadow goes back- 
ward as in Hezekialr s days. The Lord loves 
them. 

He is waiting for the fit time to gather 
them like ripe shocks of corn into His heav- 
enly garner, and while they are spared to the 
church, let the church honor them and pray 



130 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

for them, and be very tender toward them, 
and even if need be bear with their weak- 
nesses. It will not be for long. 

Now the budding pomegranate grows into 
the flourishing vine, and the flourishing vine 
develops into the " garden of nuts " — in the 
Lord's church. I am supposing these classes 
all to be sanctified wholly, and then to be 
developing under the genial showers and sun- 
shine of God's grace. I do not think any 
stage of maturity attainable in this life, be- 
yond which there may not be, and will not 
be a progression still, and I suppose the same 
is true of the life to come. This is the true 
growth in grace. 

It would be absurd to maintain that be- 
cause a child has perfect health, it may not 
grow larger and stronger. Not less prepost- 
erous is it to argue that because a heart is 
made holy, there is no longer room for a 
growth in grace and in the knowledge of 



BE ESTABLISHED. 



our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Sound 
health, whether of body or soul, is one of the 
indispensable conditions of rapid and suc- 
cessful growth. 

Beloved fellow professors of holiness, 
again let me ask, is there not still much land 
to be possessed ? 

We have crossed over the Jordan at 
Jericho, and had, it may be, some hard fight- 
ing at Ai and Bethhoron. But our Joshua — 
our Jesus has led us from victory to victory, 
and yet we may not have walked through 
the land, and traversed the length and breadth 
of it and entered into possession by faith — 
of all which our feet have trodden upon. 
There are experiences — most blessed ones — 
still awaiting us, experiences far in advance 
of entire sanctiflcation ; " Every stopping 
place," as remarked by another, " is a new 
starting place." It is continually and always 
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit 



I32 INSTRUCTIONS TO CONVERTS. 

of the Lord. Glory be to Father, Son and 
Holy Ghost. Amen. 

My dear reader, I have learned to love you 
while I have been writing to you. Many of 
you I shall never see in the flesh. I must 
now bid you farewell till we meet in the 
eternal world. There may it be my joyous 
privilege, through grace, to clasp glad hands 
with you, and may I always be glad because I 
have written this book, and may you always 
be glad because you have read it. And if in 
that happy eternity, which awaits the re- 
deemed of the Lord, it shall appear that a 
single sinner has been converted, or a single 
backslider reclaimed, or a single believer 
sanctified through the instrumentality of this 
little book, the glory shall not be to the 
writer — nor to the reader — but all to the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the only Savior both of the 
writer and the reader — to whom be glory 
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 
Hallelujah. 



Ik 



